Award: Louisiana shipyard
Value: $300 million
Location: Franklin, Louisiana
Client: Saronic Technologies
St. Louis-based contractor Alberici, alongside Kansas City, Missouri-based JE Dunn, was tapped for a $300 million expansion of naval military contractor Saronic Technologies’ Franklin, Louisiana, shipyard, according to a Dec. 3 news release from Alberici.
The construction project, which broke ground in November, will add more than 300,000 square feet of new production capacity at the facility. The expansion’s scope includes the construction of three new slips, an expansion of Saronic’s warehouse and the development of a dedicated production line for large-vessel assembly, per the news release. That production line will focus on “Marauder,” Saronic’s 180-foot autonomous ship.
Alongside Alberici and JE Dunn are Philadelphia-based JacobsWyper Architects, Long Beach, California-based P2S and Seattle-based KPFF.
This summer, during trade talks revolving around tariffs, South Korea agreed to invest $150 billion in the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which has fallen far behind global competitors, including China, according to NBC News. The pledge even came with a new mantra, embraced by President Donald Trump’s administration: Make America Shipbuilding Great Again, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Alberici has experience with shipyard and port work. Over the last five years, the company was named the fourth-largest marine and port facilities contractor by Engineering News-Record, according to its website. It’s also engaged $2 billion in civil and marine projects over the past five years, per the company’s webpage on the sector.
The expansion news comes shortly after the firm announced that it had purchased the Louisiana shipyard in April, with production of the Marauder ship as a stated goal. The ship is designed to travel up to 3,500 nautical miles or loiter for more than 30 days, depending on mission requirements.
At full employment, Saronic is expected to create 1,500 direct new jobs with an average annual salary of $87,936, according to Louisiana Economic Development. The company expects construction to be completed by the end of 2026, with expanded operations set to begin in 2027.
